Bates Motel Post Mortem: What – and Who – to Expect in Season 5
Wow! Just… wow! Not much else can be said about last night’s season finale of “Bates Motel” so let’s look ahead to next season, which we know will be the show’s swan song. Have we seen the last of some of our favorite characters? And what new characters can we expect… maybe someone from Psycho?
BEWARE OF SPOILERS BELOW!
First of all, rest assured that we haven’t seen the last of Vera Farmiga as Norma. Per TVLine, co-creator/exec producer Carlton Cuse said, “She’s existing now in Norman’s (Freddie Highmore) brain. In the original Psycho you don’t really know anything about Norma Bates. You just know that she’s a corpse, and you imagine that she was this shrew of a woman who berated her son into becoming crazy. But we re-imagined their relationship as this complex, intense, co-dependent love story. And that relationship continues very much in Season 5. It just has a different dimension, which is that she’s dead. [Laughs] But it’s not the end of the story.”
Likewise, Romero and Dylan will both be back. Cuse said of the latter, “We very much have a story planned for them next season. What we can tell you is that we’ll be spending some time with Dylan (Max Thieriot) and Emma (Olivia Cooke) as they forge a new life. But, obviously and inevitably, he will cross back into Norman’s orbit.”
As for Romero, co-creator/exec producer Kerry Ehrin told Variety, “Romero (Nestor Carbonell) will carry a torch for Norma to his grave. He has huge issues with Norman, so all that is going to come into play in the last season… He’s also become a target for the DEA. They finally have him on something even if it’s perjury, and they’re not going to let go of it lightly. He has a whole other hurdle of problems to cross at the same time that he desperately wants to get revenge on Norman.”
Ehrin also teased a bit about what’s ahead in Season 5: “…the thing that I personally love about the fifth season is that still at the center of it is everybody’s love for Norma Bates. That obsessive love that people have for her is still what propels them and is at the center of all of their actions, and she still lives on in that sense. She’s very much present in terms of what is motivating everybody. I think that’s actually lovely. That’s a lovely part of the story next year. The people that you love, when they die, they don’t die. You carry them with you for your whole life.”
As for how the show will intersect with Psycho now that Norma is indeed dead, Ehrin explains, “We want to visit the world of Psycho without redoing Psycho. The season has elements of it, but it’s our own version of it. It’s things that would have been off-screen in Psycho, and it’s complications of things that you did see on-screen. But it is a part of the season that we play with.”
Now, back to TVLine, who had the biggest scoop of all: Cuse teased, “We do hope to see Marion Crane next season,” before adding, “That will be a big moment.” Asked if the character — portrayed in the film version by Janet Leigh — will appear in multiple episodes, Cuse responded, “Yes.”
Music to our ears! If you’re as excited as we are, share your thoughts below!
We’re just as sad as you are, Norman… see you next year!
Categorized:News
